re: 1992 Expansion Question

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Google why Florida State declined to join the SEC and you will read how their past "greatest" coach ever, was scared to join the SEC. I love that they're in a conference that spans hundreds of miles. Hey FSU enjoy your two year trips to Penn. and NY. Ask any Ga. Tech fan if they screwed up by leaving the SEC. The ACC is on the brink of existence.

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This makes no sense, ACC is on the brink of existence?

It has most of the major universities on the east coast.

first things first, the architect of expansion was Harvey Schiller roy kramer's predecessor, krammer gets credit for it by the uniformed but by the time kramer came on the scene expansion was a done deal.

the target's were arkansas and texas, the original idea came from frank broyles who first floated the idea to his protege and close friend Tennessee AD doug dickey. broyles felt like given his relationship with darrell royal and deloss dodd he could deliver texas as well.

dickey floated expansion to schiller and the three men dickey, broyles and schiller met at the master's tournament where schiller upon first meeting broyles remarked is it true?

LINK

As the landscape of college athletics continues to rattle with the looming prospects of major conference realignment, Harvey Schiller was recently recalling what might have been.

From 1986-89, Schiller was the commissioner of the SEC. Light years ahead of his contemporaries, Schiller helped to spectacularly alter the direction of the SEC by moving toward expansion and a championship game in football.

In a recent interview, Schiller reflected back on how Arkansas and South Carolina became the 11th and 12th schools in the league. But the most shocking revelation concerned how close the University of Texas came to joining the SEC.

Schiller, who left the SEC to become the executive director of the United States Olympic Committee and would later serve as president of Turner Sports and CEO of YankeeNets (going from working for Ted Turner to George Steinbrenner), said Texas had virtually agreed to become an SEC member. Arkansas and Texas would join the SEC from the Western side and South Carolina and either Florida State, Miami or Virginia Tech would enter from the East.

As for Schiller, he was not around to see his expansion efforts come to fruition, but it was definitely his baby, even though most in the media today continue to give Kramer all of the credit.

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That school in Austin was never interested in the SEC and rebuffed all interest. That had nothing to do with Baylor.

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"The one that made the most sense was Texas," Schiller said. "I spent some time with DeLoss Dodds (the Texas athletic director) and he really wanted to join the conference."

Done deal. Everything agreed to but the name on the dotted line. Then, it all came apart.

"The state legislature (in Texas) somehow got wind of it through Texas A&M and said we had to bring in both schools or we couldn't take Texas," Schiller said.

The SEC didn't want A&M. Ultimately, the two Texas schools would leave the Southwest Conference and join the Big 12.


correct on ann richards forcing gaylor into the deal leaving the swc for the big 12, it was the faggies that kept texas from going to the sec.

LINK

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Arkansas and Texas was offered.

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were offered

Sorry, its a pet peeve

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it was the faggies that kept texas from going to the sec.

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We kept them from going to the PAC in 2010. That is straight from the mouth of Chip Brown, Texas's most famous realignment figure.

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Miami was trying to improve its basketball program

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Please don't write this. Yes, I think this was UM's "official" reason for rejecting the SEC, but everyone knew that they really held a view similar to Bowden's (we-can't-take-a-tough-schedule-like-the-SEC's-week-after-week). UM was used to winning national titles back in the 1980s (simply by going undefeated against very, very weak schedules with opponents like East Carolina, Rutgers, Temple, etc.). They ended up joining the Big Least conference instead of the SEC to guarantee their easy schedules. Their basketball excuse is particularly weak because the SEC was actually good at the sport (at the time, at least), and UM didn't bother making any improvements in that sport any way.

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The Colorado option?

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No. Arkansas is the one who initiated the expansion. That's the difference between leaders and people who follow or jump off of sinking ships.
At the time of the expansion in the late 80s/1990 Arkansas was dominating all big 3 sports in the SWC.

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Only one I know of was FSU.

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The SEC never offered Florida State. According to Alabama's President, they were never going to invite FSU.

Ummmmmmm.

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Also, ACC teams were really bad back then. FSU basically played a schedule of cupcakes, with the exceptions of GT and Clemson.

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The only team that played a tougher schedule in the 90s than Florida State was Florida.